Peggy Hull (December 30, 1889 – June 19, 1967), was the pen name of Henrietta Eleanor Goodnough Deuell, an American journalist who covered World War I and World War II. She was the first female correspondent accredited by the U. S. War Department.Martin J. Manning and Clarence J. Wyatt, eds., Encyclopedia of Media and Propaganda in Wartime America, Volume 1 (ABC-CLIO 2011): 469.
Early life and education Henrietta Goodnough was born in Bennington, Kansas. Her first newspaper job was at the Junction City Daily Sentinel in Junction City, Kansas.Kansas Historical Society, "Peggy Hull Deuell" Kansapedia (2012). She also worked at the Honolulu Star and the Cleveland Plain Dealer, among other papers, before she came to specialize in military reporting.Mitchel P. Roth and James Stuart Olson, eds., Historical Dictionary of War Journalism (Greenwood Publishing Group 1997): 150.
Coverage of World War I In 1916 she reported on John J. Pershing's role in pursuing Pancho Villa, and her connection with Pershing made it possible to travel to France and spend time at the front as an unsanctioned war correspondent in 1917.Gina Kaufmann, More Than Petticoats: Remarkable Kansas Women (Rowman & Littlefield 2012): 102-114. She gained official accreditation in 1918, "the only girl correspondent accredited to the A. E. F. by the war department.""Only Girl Correspondent" Abilene Daily Chronicle (April 8, 1920): 4. via Newspapers.com
Interwar After 1918, she covered American forces sent to Siberia,"Peggy Hull, Nervy War Correspondent, Braves Siberia's Terrors to Get News" Muskogee Times-Democrat (January 3, 1919): 1. via Newspapers.com wearing her usual uniform (she dressed in her own version of military gear for much of her career).Kerrie Logan Hollihan, Reporting Under Fire: 16 Daring Women War Correspondents and Photojournalists (Chicago Review Press 2014): 12.
Between the wars, Peggy Hull briefly lost her American citizenship by marrying a British man in 1922, under the Expatriation Act of 1907."Born in U.S., Can't Enter" Manitowoc Herald-News (March 5, 1926): 1. via Newspapers.com "American Girl Not Barred by Marrying Alien" Oakland Tribune (July 25, 1927): 1. via Newspapers.com
Coverage of World War II In 1939, Peggy Hull became a founding member of the Overseas Press Club of America. She renewed her accreditation as a war correspondent in 1943 to cover American involvement in the Pacific Theatre during World War II, though she was considered too old for any physically hazardous assignments. She was awarded a Navy commendation for her work.Wilda M. Smith and Eleanor A. Bogart, "DEUELL, HENRIETTA ELEANOR GOODNOUGH [PEGGY HULL]" Handbook of Texas Online, accessed December 30, 2015. Uploaded on June 12, 2010. Published by the Texas State Historical Association.
Personal life Henrietta Goodnough was married three times; to fellow journalist George Hull in 1910, to Englishman John Kinley in 1922, and to newspaper editor Harvey Deuell in 1933. She was divorced from Hull and Kinley, and widowed when Deuell died in 1939."Harvey Deuell of N. Y. News Dies Suddenly in Car" Chicago Tribune (October 30, 1939): 20. Hull died in 1967, from breast cancer, age 77, in Carmel, California. Her papers are in the University of Kansas Libraries.Peggy Hull Deuell Collection, Kansas Collection, RH MS 130, Kenneth Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas Libraries.
There is a crater on Venus named for Peggy Hull.Joel F. Russell, Gazetteer of Venusian Nomenclature (US Geological Survey, Open-File Report 94-235, May 1994): 18.
In media
A book-length biography of Peggy Hull was published in 1991: - Total pages: 305
References
- Total pages: 305